Morningside Translations, a language service provider with roots in patents and legal translations based in New York, has acquired technical translation and software localization provider Advanced Language Translation (ALT). Slator talked to Morningside CFO/Director of M&A Elizabeth Schilowitz about the deal, their plans for ALT, and the company’s growth strategy.
Schilowitz declined to disclose the deal structure and how much Morningside paid for the acquisition. She revealed, however, that the transaction was managed internally without the support of an external advisor or investment bank. Schilowitz told Slator that Morningside currently employs over 100 people and is wholly owned by private individuals with no institutional, private equity or venture capital backing. The addition of ALT will add “less than 20 people” to Morningside.
Asked about the plans for ALT, Schilowitz said the the acquired company will continue under its established brand for the time being. Morningside, under no external pressure to streamline costs or operations, will take the time necessary to integrate the new team. According to Schilowitz, ALT will be “part of the backbone of [Morningside’s] localization team.”
This is only Morningside’s third acquisition since it was founded in 2000. Until 2015, the company focused on organic growth with SpanTran in 2007 its only previous acquisition.
Morningside has now changed strategy and is making a “big push towards acquisitive growth.”
In June 2015, the company announced its acquisitions of UK-based AC Translations. Where AC Translations’ roots of legal and patent translations are more aligned with Morningside’s own, the acquisition of ALT gets them into relatively new territory. Schilowitz said the acquisition allows Morningside to expand into technical documentation and what she referred to as “customized” machine translation. ALT also offers its own website translation proxy called SiteLingo — a service that has actually generated some controversy recently.
As is the case for Smartling, Summa Linguae, and EQHO recently covered by Slator, Morningside also plans to do more deals soon. According to Shilowitz, Morningside is currently “talking to several other acquisition candidates actively.”
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